


fit your fingers into the spaces between mine

by dytabytes



Series: every me loves every you [2]
Category: Pacific Rim (2013)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Artists, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-02-26
Updated: 2014-02-26
Packaged: 2018-01-13 15:14:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,007
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1231183
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dytabytes/pseuds/dytabytes
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Raleigh paints romance novel covers for a living. Herc models for him.</p>
            </blockquote>





	fit your fingers into the spaces between mine

“How the fuck did we get to this, Raleigh?”

Herc stands with his hands on his hips, pretending to stare off into the distance as Raleigh works at his sketchpad. He’s supposed to be being quiet, but there’s only so long a man could spend staring at the plaster ceiling of his neighbour’s crap apartment before insanity sets in.

Raleigh continues to sketch where he’s seated at his kitchen counter, balancing his sketchpad on his bent knee as he scribbles on the paper with vigour. It’s sort of funny how it keeps sliding around. He keeps trying to steady it despite the obvious slipperiness of the surface he’s bracing against, and Herc has to concentrate to keep himself from smirking.

“Umm, from what I can remember, ages ago, I sent a portfolio off on a whim for a job to do book covers. And then I got hired and really needed a model for the super specific thing they wanted. So, being the masterful thinker that I am, I bribed you into posing for me with promises of pizza and beer.” Raleigh looks up from his drawings to grin at Herc. “And then you just kept being available when I needed a warm body with a good physique.”

Herc grins back. “Jesus, that’s not nearly as complicated a story as it should’ve been.”

“I draw the covers for the books, Herc. I don’t live them.” Raleigh snorts. “Plus, you get to lounge around on my couch on a regular basis, drinking beer and eating all of my pizza in exchange for looking pretty. I don’t see why you’re complaining.”

“Well, it’s a Friday night, Raleigh. I could be, I dunno. Out on the town? Partying it up with some good looking company?”

“Falling over in alleyways, half deaf from overly loud music and broke from buying overpriced alcohol. Yeah, sounds really appealing.” Raleigh smiles wryly. “Although you _would_ definitely find someone to bring home. So, I mean, if you ever wanted to not show up, I wouldn’t be offended?”

“Nah. It’s true that the company and the price of the alcohol are better here than at the pub.” Herc waves his hand and winks. “And you’re not _that_ hard to look at. Whatever that says about me.”

“That you’ve got good taste, I guess.” Raleigh laughs, then groans as he gets off his spindly kitchen stool to stretch, cracking his wrists and elbows. “Okay, that’s enough of that pose. I need something a little more dramatic.”

“Oh?” Herc cocks his head, eyebrows raised. “What do you mean by that?”

“I mean, meet Esmeralda.” Raleigh tosses a mop at Herc. There’s a paper taped to one end, portraying a scrawl of a smiley face with oversized lips. “You should dip her and look lovelorn. And pretty, of course, but you’re already good at that.”

“My god. What happened to Rosalie?” Herc stares at the mop with dismay “I liked Rosalie. Best body pillow ever.” 

“She got lost to a terrifying accident involving my brother’s dog being a horny fucker.” Raleigh sighs in regretful remembrance. “I couldn’t keep her after that. So, her replacement. I know she pales in comparison to your good looks, but she’s a pretty fine looking mop, am I right?”

Deadpan, Herc says, “If I were forced to rate a mop based on attractiveness, I’d be hard pressed to give this one a four.”

Raleigh rolls his eyes at Herc’s grimace. “Would you quit whining and dip her, already?” 

To his credit, Herc does dip the mop and look into its googly eyes with what he hopes will pass for lust. He even holds the pose for a good twenty minutes at least before his self-control cracks.

When he starts making exaggerated puckering kissy noises at the mop, Raleigh looks up and sticks his tongue out at him.

“Oh c’mon, you're supposed to be the strong, stoic knight rescuing the swooning maiden! No duck face allowed!”

Herc shakes Esmeralda in Raleigh’s direction. “Well look here, I mean, she doesn't really seem all that maiden-like."

"What? No, she’s a perfect lady!” Raleigh raises an eyebrow, hands on his hips. “Now, I'm offended on her behalf."

“If she hasn’t already had several affairs with Mr. Clean, I’m a monkey’s uncle.”

“Joke’s on you, then. I’m a broke-ass artist who only uses generic shit on my floors.” Raleigh flashes a killer grin and a thumbs up at Herc. “Guess you can be expecting a call from your brother about a misdemeanour charge at the zoo sometime soon.”

The two lock gazes, then start cracking up.

“Oh shit, Scott _would_ fuck a monkey, wouldn’t he?” 

“Only girl who’d ever find him attractive!”

“Jesus, you’re the worst model ever.” Raleigh says as he wipes the tears out of his eyes. “Insulting my mop and making weird faces all the time.”

Smirking, Herc says, “But I’m cheap and easy!” 

"Pff, your only redeeming qualities, but they are major ones.”

Raleigh bullies Herc into posing with Esmeralda for a little while longer, pretending to dip her again, then moving to swing her up and around.

“Girl’s got an iron stomach if she’s okay with all this swooping,” Herc mutters as Raleigh scribbles frantically at his paper. 

“Romance novel heroines are fragile, swooning beauties who get tossed all over the place.” Raleigh squints at his page, then grins. “Okay, I think that’s enough for me to get the cover of “Den of Lust” finished.”

“Amazing.” Herc lets Esmeralda drop to the floor with an inglorious clatter as he stands up. “Making eyes at a mop for this long has got me questioning my sexuality here.”

“Hey, don’t mistreat my mop! She’s got feelings too, don’t you know?” Raleigh laughs as he flips his sketchbook closed. 

“I think she likes it rough, doesn’t she? Working on your floors, she’s got to.” Herc laughs as Raleigh bends down to pick the mop up, and if his eyes linger a bit on Raleigh’s behind, well. It’s really been a while since he last brought anyone home with him.

“God, talking about my mop’s sexual preferences now. Are you hiding something from me about your kinks, Herc?” Raleigh wiggles his eyebrows and grins at Herc. 

Obviously the only appropriate response is for Herc to lean right into Raleigh’s space, ignoring his stiffening, and whisper in his ear, “Raleigh, I’m pretty cool with experimentation, but it’d take a hell of a lot of beer for me to consider putting a mop up my ass.”

Raleigh chokes on his own tongue as Herc cracks up and lets himself be pushed away. “Oh my god, you’re not allowed to say shit like that!” 

He pounds his chest until he gets his air back and can glare at Herc, who is still snickering at him as he grabs his T-shirt off the couch and slings it back on.

“Saying stuff like that around my poor impressionable mop. What if I got ideas? Heck, what if _she_ gets ideas?”

“Well she’s your mop, so I guess you’ll have to watch your behind around her, won’t you?”

Raleigh flips the bird at Herc, blushing hard. “Oh whatever. I’m gonna go order dinner to escape from this relentless barrage of insults. You cool with the usual?”

“Yeah, sure.” Herc flops onto the couch, rubbing his face against the soft brown leather as Raleigh wanders off to find his phone. It’s nice to lie down for a bit, listening to Raleigh root around in his bedroom for his missing cell phone (and no matter what he does, it’s always missing), but after a little while, he gets restless. 

Herc’s gaze wanders around the room as he searches for something to do. All in all, Raleigh’s place is pretty sparse. There’s a TV across from the couch and some prints hanging on the walls, but outside of that, he doesn’t have a lot sitting around to fiddle with. Finally, Herc’s eye falls on Raleigh’s sketchbook.

It’s going to be mostly images of him, so he figures it can’t be that invasive to take a look.

The first pages of the book are obviously sketches of him for covers, busts and full-body sketches of him looking like a romantic hero. He flips through, grinning a little as he thinks back to the fun he and Raleigh have had doing these up together. When he hits a blank space, he almost decides that must be it. As he starts the close the book, though, his finger snags on a folded page near the back.

What he finds in that section are completely different fare. They’re still sketches of him, but they’re different. It takes a while for Herc’s mind to click onto why, but when it does, he’s intrigued. 

These aren't romance novel poses. They’re just sketches of him, stretched out on the couch or slumping on a chair, laughing and smiling or staring out the window, but he doesn’t look like a caricature in these. He looks… human. If he were a poetic kind of man, he’d call it a love song drawn on paper. 

It’s strange. He and Raleigh have had their moments, sure, with glances that met a bit too often and touches that lingered a bit too long, but this? This seems like more than the casual flirtation Herc had assumed they were exchanging. There’s too much care given to detailing the arch of his lips, the planes of his face. As he flips through the sketches, Herc is distantly surprised at how little he minds this revelation.

“Who’d have thought?”, he murmurs as he stops at one particular image. It’s a drawing of him sitting on the floor, leaned up against the wall, and it catches his eye because it looks distinctly unfinished. A strange mix of emotions well in his chest as he notices the post-it note stuck in the empty space beside him, covering it like he’s not supposed to be alone, but Raleigh couldn’t figure out how to fill the void properly. 

Herc grabs a pen from the coffee table and starts scribbling, but as he’s writing, Raleigh comes back.

“Okay! You wanna watch someth- what are you doing?” Raleigh’s eyes are wide as they flick from Herc’s face to his sketchbook and back to Herc. 

“I’m um. I was bored, and I thought it wouldn’t hurt to flip through since it’s mostly me?” 

“But why are you writing on it? God, if you fucking drew dicks all over the cover sketches, I’m gonna murder-” Raleigh rushes over and snatches the sketchbook away even as Herc tries to explain. He pales when he realizes what page Herc is on. “Oh my god, you saw these.”

“Ah… yeah.”

“And you… what did you draw on?”

Herc flips the book a couple pages back to the page with the post-it. 

"I was gonna write that you should draw yourself in the empty spot. Because you'd fit there. Beside me." He pauses, then adds, “It sounded a lot better in my head.”

Raleigh stares at the book in his hands. His mouth is opening, but apparently he can’t make any sound.

“I’ll just. Look, sorry. I guess I overstepped.” Herc backs away, hands held out in apology. “I’ll just. Let myself out.” 

“You shouldn’t!” Herc freezes mid-way though his turn, and Raleigh grabs his arm. “I mean, you can leave if you want, but I wouldn’t mind, um. You know. Being beside you. And stuff.”

He waves the sketchpad awkwardly with his other hand.

“Yeah?” Herc turns back, grinning. “Because we’ve got a good half hour until the pizza gets here.”

“Oh, I could do plenty of drawing in half an hour.” Raleigh says, grinning wickedly now that he’s not nervous anymore. “Maybe I could even ink this before the delivery guy gets here.”

Herc snorts as he steals the pad from Raleigh.

“Or we could put that aside and do something more interactive.”

Raleigh laughs as he lets Herc pull him down onto the couch.

“I do like the sound of that.”

**Author's Note:**

> The working title of this fic was "Draw Me Like One of Your French Girls".


End file.
